Punctuation, Part 1

Unnecessary Commas

    I thought that I understood when to use commas very well. It turns out that is not necessarily the case. I found it interesting that they used my name for an example that I didn't understand. I thought that you always used a comma before using "but," but apparently not. I now know that you should not use a comma between compound elements that are not independent clauses. I also was not aware about the use of commas between cumulative adjectives.  That was really interesting to me.

The Semi Colon

     My personal biggest use of the semi colon is when I use "however" to separate to independent clauses. I know now that I can use a semi colon between closely related independent clauses not joined with a coordinating conjunction. It was also really cool to see them used in a series containing internal punctuation. That isn't something that I ever considered.  

The Apostrophe 

     I knew the simple rules of apostrophes, such as possession and contractions, but I did not know not to use apostrophes in the plural of numbers, letters, abbreviations, and words mentioned as words.  There aren't a ton of rules for apostrophes that are noted in Rules for Writers. I had a good prior knowledge of when to use and when not to use the apostrophe, but I enjoyed going through and learning when not to use apostrophes. I always used to use them when saying the plural of a number, such as: the 1920s. I would always use an apostrophe in the 1920s, but that was actually incorrect.

REFLECTION
     In Adams paper, he stated "All together, this telescope is vital towards our future, and the construction." I did not feel that the comma after "future" was necessary. That was a good example of an unnecessary comma.

In Diane's paper, her title is "Stem Cell Research and it’s Benefits." The apostrophe in the title is unnecessary because she is showing that "it's" is a contraction. In this case, it is actually showing possession and the apostrophe is not needed.

By learning more about punctuation, I was able to see some of the mistakes in my own paper and my peers' papers that I would not have noticed before. I found it interesting how easy it was to mess up an apostrophe. I do it all of the time. I was glad that I was able to spot these mistakes and point them out to my classmates.